WOW

Wow is what living in Antarctica brings to mind. I have been here for almost 3 weeks and I am loving every moment. There has, however, been a few instances that have made me rethink this adventure that I am partaking. I am unable to say too much information as of right now, but we have unfortunately had to loose multiple members already this year. On the other hand, every day I am amazed by the unspoiled beauty of this alien environment. One such moment was yesterday as we drove back from Pegasus airfield, I was starring at the mountains that were beyond the Ross ice shelf. I sat in the back of SCAT 1 unaware of the things that were happening around me and was only focused on the beauty. Times such as this happen daily. When I feel I've finally come to ease with my surroundings, I find something new and again I'm over whelmed.

It is however difficult to be away from home. Never before have I consistently thought about the people I love. I am realizing how important these people are and how they truly complete my being. Time to myself to just think is a rarity while I'm home, but here I am fortunate enough to be able to have time to myself to think about what truly matters to me.

It's a harsh continent

You know you're heading to a harsh continent when you leave your house on Sept 27th and you don't make it to Antarctica until Oct 9th. I spent a day and a half in Denver CO going through orientation, two very long boring days. On the 29th we left Denver, flew to LA where we quickly switched planes and get onto a Quantas flight to Auckland New Zealand. Once in Auckland, we went through customs and walked to the domestic terminal. Here I had my first taste of Kiwi style beer and it was surprisingly tasty. Soon after we jumped on a small plane to Christchurch NZ. I was origanly suppose to be there for about two days, but because it is a harsh continent we were held up for over a week waiting for weather to allow ou military C-17 to be able to land in Antarctica. On our first attempt to make it down here, we boomeranged 4:30 hours into the flight, mind you it's a 5 hour flight to make it down here. So that day I had the pleasure of sitting in a military plane for over 9 hours. Luckily two days later we were able to make it down here. The first moments out of the plane, I was in complete disbelief that I had made it down to Antarctica. Actually the first few days down here were like this. Eventually I came to grasp the situation and began to make the most out of this great adventure. The following pictures were taken while I was stuck in NZ. I'll post pictures from down here within a few days. If anyone has anything they would like to see, or questions let me know.